Purdue Basketball: Preview of Boilermakers 2020-21 depth chart
By Ben Dickson
Purdue Shooting Guards
4-star combo guard Ethan Morton was a great get for Matt Painter in 2020s recruiting cycle. Listed at 6’6″ on Purdue’s official roster, Morton excels in his ability to see the floor. In fact, his passing ability earned such high praise that certain college coaches said that he was “the best high school passer [they’ve] ever seen”.
I would expect Morton to start at shooting guard while seeing time at small forward and potentially playing some lead guard. If he lives up to expectations, he may play over 20 minutes a game.
Another guy who could challenge for the starting shooting guard role is redshirt freshman Brandon Newman. Newman, a former four-star recruit, dominated the state of Indiana his senior year, ending as Indiana’s Mr. Basketball’s runner-up in 2019. He can really fill up the stat sheet and can light it up from deep. The redshirt year in the Purdue program should help his development. If he starts, he could take those projected minutes from Morton, but if not, I would expect him to play 10-15 minutes a night.
One of Morton’s counterparts from the 2020 recruiting class is freshman shooting guard Jaden Ivey. Standing at 6’4″ out of La Lumiere School in Indiana, Ivey also ranked as a consensus 4-star recruit. Watching film, he pops out as a dynamic player who can find many ways to score. He is a capable three-point shooter with the ability to get to the rim off his own dribble. It’s tough to say how many minutes Ivey could get, but somewhere between 10-15 minutes sounds right.
Purdue has a ton of players listed at shooting guard, and for that reason, we will most likely see Matt Painter role out 3-guard lineups more often than not.